Sunday, March 11, 2012

... on Thing #2: Foreseeing the future

When my Nana Mary died, my Ma, brother and I had to pack up her house. Weirdly, I kinda enjoyed it. Now, I know that's a bit of a morbid thing to say - and at the time I felt guilty about it. But hell - when I pop off I would prefer someone to enjoy going through my stuff rather than finding it a chore or worse - being disinterested and binning the lot!

See, my Nana Mary was a strong, interesting lady. She wore a long white plait for as long as I knew her, and was prone to saying exactly what she thought. For example; "You've put on a lot of weight, Ems!" and to my brother, hairline receding; "Why don't you cut off some of that hair at the back (he had long hair at the time) and get it made into a wig for the top?" and, the first time she met my Ma (short, brunette) said "I always thought Stef would marry a tall blonde."

When the three of us packed up her house, we found things that immediately had to be shared and discussed. She had books on interpreting dreams, the occult, on how to increase your concentration and phrenology. Wrapped in a piece of red velvet at the back of her closet we found a crystal ball, the sort we imagined should belong in a gypsy garavan.

One Thing that eventually found a home with me was this.

This little fortune-telling dice is completely charming... I can see it being brought out at dinner parties after the port, and my Nana Mary casting it across the table with aplomb, nail varnish and rings glittering.

The idea is that you choose a category to query - about love, marriage, finance, the home, luck, or surprise. You roll the dice and then match the resulting number with the sheet of results. You can also ask yes/no questions and determine an answer whether the result is an odd or even number.

This morning I've had an experimental roll of the dice - I picked the genre 'Surprise' and rolled a 16... the result was 'A letter from an old-time friend with lots of good news.' That sounds promising!

Would you like me to roll the dice for you? Let me know your preferred category (once again - they are love, marriage, finance, the home, luck, or surprise) in the comments and I'll roll the dice and let you know what your result is. What fun!

This is the blog of Emily Engel. She lives in Brisbane, Australia, and she likes Pekin bantam chickens, vegetable gardens, David Attenborough, road trips, clean sheets, ocean swims and wrapping up presents. For more fun she may be found making things out of tin, plaster and other perilous substances to sell at www.kuberstore.etsy.com.
And blogging about it all. Here!